TCD Environmental Initiative benefits Children’s Hospital

Posted on: 06 February 2006

Launch of TCD Green Week 2006

€3,000 raised through the recycling of TCD’s printer cartridges and mobile phones was donated to Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin, at the launch the 3rd annual TCD Green Week, today, Monday 6 February.  The recycling initiative running in Trinity College in since September 2005, is in association with Dave Kiernan, who services about 1,000 businesses in Dublin on a part-time, voluntary basis recycling printer cartridges and mobile phones. 

The theme of this year’s Green Week is “Take the Initiative and Make a Difference”, which aims to encourage more staff and students to partake in the College’s recycling programmes. It costs Trinity College €1,000 per day to dispose of waste, and this could be halved by further recycling. During 2005 the college community recycled 734.37 tonnes of material or 44% of the total waste produced on campus. Products which the College recycles include cardboard, timber, office paper, organic waste, newspapers, glass bottles & aluminium cans, plastic bottles, electronic waste & fluorescent tubes.

As part of Trinity College’s Green Week 2006, Eanna ní Lamhna, President of An Taisce and reporter on RTE Radio One’s programme Mooney Goes Wild, will present the Simon Perry Memorial Lecture entitled ‘What did the environment ever do for me?’, on Wednesday 8 February.

Other environmental initiatives being launched during Green Week 2006 include the College’s new CLEAN (Chemicals and Laboratory Equipment As New) initiative, where Departments and schools are invited to advertise chemical products and laboratory equipment used for the scientific research and teaching, which are suitable for re-use and no longer required with the aim of reducing waste in this area. The College will also launch the use of its first on-campus aluminium can bailer on Monday, which reproduces can in blocks of aluminium ready for recycling.
 
A full programme of Trinity Green Week events is available at http://www.tcd.ie/GreenPages.